Abbie Eaton, one of the quickest female drivers in the Uk will make her GT3 debut next weekend in the Blancpain GT Series next weekend.
The series Endurance cup gets underway at Monza in Italy and Eaton will be sharing a Ferrari 488GT3
Joining the 25 year old british driver in the car will be Alex Demirdjian and Davide Rizzo. The Trio will be racing in the AM cup part of the championship.
Eaton has already had a test in the car at Monza last month where she set some competitive times which helped seal the deal to race the car.
This will be her second year in a row in an Italian car after racing a Maserati GranTurismo MC GT4 last year in British GT for the Ebor GT team. Paired with Marcus Hogarth the two won races and ultimately finished second in the championship’s Pro/Am class.
The GT3 Ferrari will be a massive step up for Eaton, both in the performance of the car and the level of competition with the grid being full of drivers from all over Europe often totally over fifty cars. It’s recognised as one of the top GT3 championships in the world.
“I can now confirm that I have been selected to race alongside Alex Demirdjian and Davide Rizzo in the Blancpain GT Series’ Am Cup,” said Eaton. “It’s going to be a steep learning curve but I’m excited to get stuck in and am confident we can get a decent result. It’s a well needed break after struggling to find budget to do anything this year so I’m hoping that some good results will put me on the GT3 radar. At the moment it’s only for the first round but, if we get a solid result, who knows: we might be back!”
She also spoke about her first drive in the car.
“I really enjoyed myself at the test but there wasn’t much time to get to grips with the car so I knew I had to get stuck in as soon as possible. The main thing I had to get my head around was the braking pressure I needed to apply to get the car stopped. It was really impressive just how stable the car was thanks to all the extra downforce in comparison to a GT4 car, too.”
The event is realising some ambitions for the Yorkshire born driver;
“I’ve always wanted to race a Ferrari and especially the 488 GT3 as it’s such a formidable car. Plus it was my first time driving at Monza, which has such a fantastic atmosphere that’s similar to Spa-Francorchamps – it really is a special place.”
“Finally, a massive thank you needs to go to Alex, Spirit of Race and Piers Masarati for the brilliant opportunity.”
The opening round of this season’s Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup gets underway at 14:45 local time next Sunday (23rd April) You can watch the entire three-hour race live at www.blancpain-gt-series.com/live
